


Out of Sight, Out of Mind

by Brennah_K



Category: 50 shades of grey, Fifty Shades of Grey - Fandom
Genre: AU from the day after Jose's opening., F/M, Implied Off-screen childhood sexual abuse, Memory Tampering, Mentions of neglect, Off-Screen Murder, Psychiatric issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-19
Updated: 2012-10-18
Packaged: 2017-11-16 14:25:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/540421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brennah_K/pseuds/Brennah_K
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the photos of Jose's exhibit opening run in the paper, Ray pays Christian Grey a visit and has a few words to say. They're not at all what Christian expected... but they explain so much... so very much about Ana, the woman he's beginning to think he could love.</p><p>The only question is whether what Ray has to say will make or break their relationship... and whether Christian can possibly handle being with someone who has her own claim to being Fifty-Shades?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of Sight, Out of Mind

"Christian..." Taylor was unusually hesitent when he entered Christian's office.

"What is it?" Christian demanded impatiently. He really should have gone straight to bed and finally gotten some sleep after leaving Anastasia, but he'd been in bed for most of three days- after completing the model glider she'd given him - unable to sleep, but too depressed to get up and get back to what he needed to do.

"Sir." Taylor begain tentatively, but Christian couldn't deal with his aide's concern at the moment..."Just spit it out, Taylor."

Christian really hasn't been paying Taylor enough, and he knows it, but as of their last contract negotiation, Taylor had refused another raise and implied that he'd continue to refuse until Christian came up with a better reason to give him another obscene pay increase than he wanted to.

"Miss Steele's father is at the reception and has been asking to speak to you. He has already been to your downtown and was told you were not available."

Dropping his face into his hands, Christian cursed quietly.

He was certain that Ana hadn't spoken to anyone of their break up. The stream of concerned messages and emails left by her mother, step father, and friend, were enough to attest to the fact that she had not contacted them in the days since their break up, but if Mr. Steele had visited her, there was no way he could have missed seeing how emotionally and physically devestated Ana had been by their split.

For himself, Christian could hardly credit how badly effected Ana had been. It hadn't made sense, when it had been her that left him. By all rights, she should have been able to relax and breath easier after her escaped the hold his messed up life and arrangement.

Instead, Christian had been staggered by his first sight of her; she'd looked ravaged, as if her heart and soul had been shredded leaving only a quickly shrinking husk behind... shrinking because She. Had. Been. Starving. Herself. Why would she do that to herself? Why hadn't she stopped him when things had gone too far, for that matter? She'd said she'd forgotten. Forgotten. That she could safeword. Who forgets that?

"Sir?" Concern was thick in Taylor's voice when he prompted.

"Just send him in, Taylor." Christian sighed. He'd have to face it sooner or later, but letting it wait meant letting matters fester, and now that there was even the slightest possibility of their getting back together, Mr. Steele's opinion mattered. Ana clearly looked up to the man, natural father or no, and he'd seen for himself that she seemed to have a closer more parental relationship with Mr. Steele than with her own mother, who seemed to treat her daughter as if they were drinking friends more than parent and child.

"Yes Sir," Taylor's response was just shy of a resigned sigh, and Christian suppressed the urge to snap at the man.

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Ray Steele, when he finally entered the office, was disheveled, almost haggard, unshaven, and well... wretched. But, surprisingly, not angry, which was the very least that Christian had expected from him.

"Mr. Grey, thank you for seeing me." Mr. Steele began, standing awkwardly behind the chairs in front of Christian's desk.

"Mr. Steele, of course. How can I help you?"

It seemed like the safest thing to say, and it wouldn't be the first time that a companion's family member had come to him for financial help. If that's what it was about. From Taylor's research the man had seemed to be solvent, though, without business or gambling debts, or disturbing habits... a standard that Christian himself couldn't have passed.

He'd help, of course; simply for Ana's sake, but it was a surprise that there was anything the man might need help with.

"No, Mr. Grey, I can hazard a guess why you think I'm here, but it's not any where near that. God, I wish it were. This is more complicated, and ... more delicate. It's about Annie."

Christian jerked back in shock, and denial. Apart from their recent spat, there was nothing wrong with Ana. He had made very sure of that, not even relying on Taylor's research. What was he missing?

"What? I just saw Ana last night, what are you trying to say?"

"May I sit?" Steele asked in a wary tone.

'Yes, yes." Christian gestured the man into the chair, noticing for the first time the newspaper he had clutched in his hand. A rush of scenarios, each more unlikely than the next ran through his thoughts, and Christian tried to pin them in place without success.

It took a few moments before he realized that Mr. Steele hadn't begun to speak, yet. When he glanced up a the man's face, he was startled to see the man's eyes were red-rimmed, though, thankfully, dry.

"Mr. Steele, can I offer you a drink?" He floundered, uncomfortably uncertain how to push or end the conversation before it began, depending on it's content. He wanted to know everything about Ana, he thought, but at the same time, there was a burning feeling in his gut that was making him worry.

"I haven't taken a single drink, in the last twelve years, cause of Ana, but I think I need one now, for the same reason." Steele ends the sentence with a bitter not quite ironic laugh that makes the burning feeling in the pit of Christian's stomach go up by twenty degrees.

Rising from his desk, Christian goes to the bar and quickly fixes the older man a drink, only half paying enough attention to what he's pouring to make sure it doesn't slosh. Regardless of what he poured in it, he doubted that Ana's stepfather would take the time to savor it.

"Thanks," Mr. Steele commented, before proving Christian's expectation right and tossing the drink back, without pause, before he continued, " First, I need to tell you something..." He trailed off after a second, and then began again. "No, that's not right. First, I need to ask you something. After Annie introduced you, I did a little research on you, and from what I could see, you seem to be a man who understand's discretion..."

"I do." Christian agreed into the expectant gap, wondering where the man was going with the comment that wasn't quite a question.

"I hope so, I really do. For better or worse, I think that I've got to tell you this, but before I do, I need to know if you can promise me - regardless of how your relationship works out or doesn't work out with my daughter - that you will not tell anyone else what I'm about to tell you, not even Annie? 

Stunned to silence, Christian nodded. What kind of secrect could his Ana have surrounding her, that she herself didn't even know about it?

"Don't just make a quick decision here, Mr. Grey. I'm serious. Can you keep what I'm going to tell you secret... even if you don't think, after hearing it, that you can be with her?"

"There's nothing you can tell me that I can't deal with, Mr. Steele, not about Ana." Christian argued, his mind reeling at the thought that Steele could even think that there could be.

"I hope you're right, young man; God, I hope you're right." Steel answered, before staring down into his glass, as if trying to find some liquid courage in the empty glass. 

Without comment, Christian got up, returned to the bar, grabbed a glass for himself, and a bottle that he set back on the desk between them. 

Steele nodded his thanks, even as he handed Christian the paper and stood to pour his own drink. The paper was folded with both sides flipped back to frame the photo of he and Ana at the opening of her friend's exhibit. 

"What do you see when you look at Ana, there?" Steele questioned before tossing his second drink back.

"Your daughter, of course. She's smiling and seems to be happy. I think." He hedged, remembering exactly what was going on at the moment the photo was taken, but not wanting to even hint at what either he or Ana might have been thinking at the moment?'

"So, you hadn't noticed that she's lost weight? It doesn't look like she's gotten any sleep either, and I've heard from her m... from Carla that she hasn't answered any calls. Does that sound like any behavior you've seen from her as well?" 

Christian cursed savagely under his breath as he steeled himself for the argument that he was sure to come, as he answered,"Yes, I have but..."

"Oh, I know, I overheard you trying to talk her into eating something, when I called her shortly after graduation. I should have stepped up to the plate and told you then, but I wanted to let myself hope that this wouldn't happen. Even though, I knew it might. Hell, I was pretty sure it would ... I should have warned you; I'm sorry."

"What?!? That what wouldn't happen?" Christian demanded, thrown off by the man's non sequitors. 

"That she might start starving herself again. I'm sorry, I know that I'm doing this wrong and understand that you're frustrated. Let me just lay it out there for you: 

Twelve years ago, when Annie was ten ... just before she came to live with me... something happened that caused her to shut down, almost completely: she stopped eating, sleeping, talking. She lost close to 25 lbs in less than a month, collapsed at school, and was rushed to the hospital. As much as it terrified me at the time, in retrospect, I'm glad that happened, because i wouldn't have found out otherwise....Even though she was living in a different state, because she was still listed on my insurance, I was contacted to verify that I still wanted t keep her as my beneficiary and dependent. Of course, the answer was yes." "Afterward, I took her to a few doctors...shrinks, but they were just high priced snake oil salesmen. After trying to work with her for a couple of months, those frauds were ready to give up on my baby girl and commit her: drug her up, force feed her, and 'treat her' like she had some mental defect because they couldn't get her to open up to them." 

"They wanted to lock my baby away and say she was a danger to herself - probably for the rest of her life if they could get their money out of it." 

Christian's glass dropped from his nerveless fingers at the declaration, and he thought he'd heard Taylor hiss 'shit!' in the background.

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End file.
